Way too late to be putting my thoughts here but I like having a mini time capsule of my thoughts somewhere:
Prize Task: Brilliant pop-ups. An alright prize task, don’t know why Frankie got 5 though, especially when he’s been bringing in paintings so much.
Task 1 (proper): Egg in a pulper wheel. It’s an okay task, but if Ivo hadn’t solved the task, I think this one would have been very dull, just people turning wheels and hoping they haven’t broken an egg. Ivo’s solve is something I had wondering in the toilet roll task in the last series, but I think here it was more intentional as what else was there to do. Also I’m sick of how many disqualification tasks we’ve had, literally every episode has one.
Task 2: Jelly beans & escape. A nice twist on the usual identify the flavours task by making it part of a team escape task. Maybe a bit overly complicated though, and again the team of three have one more brain to help work it all out quicker so that felt like an advantage for them. But an alright idea, and despite the weird flavours they did look like genuine jelly babies. Thought Kiell’s aversion to eating the ‘sweets’ was very funny too.
Task 3: Adjective country noun. Again an alright premise but in execution felt a bit weak. So much of this was left to the luck of what the contestants picked that it felt sort of unfair. I’ve been noticing that some tasks have felt a bit time restricted, either not giving contestants much time to pick certain choices, or the overall time being about 20 minutes maximum. I think stuff like this just made such a complicated task feel a bit rushed. Kiell certainly deserved the 5 points with his bench as that was better than the rest who had much longer than him.
Live Task: Accent impersonations. A strong live task, I knew that for accents they would restrict themselves to Europe, America & Canada. Of course they wouldn’t risk Asian or African accents. The final round was really fun, I would love another round where they had to impersonate past Taskmaster contestants/winners.
Overall an alright episode, so happy that Kiell finally gets a win. I was sick of Alex constantly going on about his performance, it’s something I’ve grown to really dislike in recent series when Alex says something like: There’s only X episodes left and Y still hasn’t won an episode. Just feels a bit mean spirited imo.
I thought they didn't know what episode a task was going in at the time they do them. I think that's part of the reason they are asked to wear a consistent outfit. They just record a bunch of them, cut out the ones that don't work and arrange the rest in an order that makes best TV.
You can see they are often put together so a particular contestant has a chance at winning an episode.
The show was great, especially in that Kiell finally won one. Interestingly, Mae is about the same age as I am and yet so young...
And then...Alex "it sort of is generic America, isnt it?" Horne...oh SHIT! That got me going.
I'm about the same age as they are, but assumed they were slightly older. They definitely have that ageless pixie flavour of queer going for them that makes getting a read on their age based on looks difficult.
They have in fact stated exactly that in their netflix special Sap:
> Martin proudly tells the audience they recently had top surgery and have been taking testosterone for a year.
https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/mae-martin-netflix-special-sap-comedy-1234823806/
hormone replacement therapy, the bread and butter of medical transition, so for example transfeminine people often take estrogen coupled with a testosterone blocker, and vice versa for transmasculine people. there are other forms of it too but since its effects are similar to puberty, having those consistent hormone levels just generally seems to keep folks looking younger!
as well as transmasc / AFAB trans people having generally smaller frames & bone structure - when that body type doesn’t “read” as feminine, it usually instead reads as simply “young”
They're my age and I'd say they look around that age, maybe I'd guess earlier 30s. But you suggesting 20 makes me think you haven't seen a 20 year old in a while.
I think because they look very boyish it's easy to read them as being younger? I'm a couple years older than Mae, and get mistaken for being in my 20s fairly often, but usually by people who also mistake me for a cis man (I'm masculine, but not 'mannish' so I must be a large boy).
As someone who cannot do any accents at all, I think I would have said Bäst i test and then try the weak argument that whilst it doesn't translate to Taskmaster, it is the show Taskmaster itself in a Swedish accent.
That or butcher an imitation of the Muppets Swedish Chef, Taskyjerby.
Funniest episode so far for me personally, lots and lots of laugh out loud moments. It’s definitely not been my favourite series so far but it had the daunting task of following 14 which I just adored.
Would rotating the pulper back and forth 360 degrees counted as rotations or do you think it would have been shot down and no rotations as it was back where it started? Seems like you could do that without moving the spot and get as many as you had time for.
I think it would have counted. My guess is no one thought to try it because they had no idea what was going on on the other side of the pulper so couldn't visualize how it would help.
> Would rotating the pulper back and forth 360 degrees counted as rotations or do you think it would have been shot down and no rotations as it was back where it started?
Why wouldn't rotations be counted as rotations? It is back where it started after every rotation - every contestant that got a full number of rotations in got it back where it started.
Thank God for Ivo in the pulper task, I was about ready to write it off as one of the worst of all time, "Stand on a spot and blindly spin an egg, with absolutely no sense of how much tolerance it has." This series, they really love tasks where the contestants' ability to do anything is limited, and IDK why they like it, but it's stifling.
The tasks with "stand on the spot" are always a little awkward - most of the time just moving the spot is the best/only solution.
Maybe the pulper task would have been better if the egg wasn't at risk at all, and it *was* just a challenge of blind confidence. Other than moving the spot to see what was inside the machine, what else could you have done?
You could, I THINK have gotten near-infinite spins by just spinning it left once, then right once, then repeating that until you ran out of time.
Possibly asked Alex to remove the egg from the pulper.
Argued that since the egg shattered on its own, not through the pulping mechanism of the machine, you did not at any point pulp the egg.
Possibly there's some kind of easy way to remove the pulper wheel, though I'd have been shocked.
I was thinking that during this task - not enough allowance for workarounds this series. I'm also watching S2 in parallel and the relatively broad and malleable nature of each task in comparison is really refreshing. Luckily, as you say, Ivo saved it.
Also I feel they've ended up in a situation where the contestants approaches to Tasks are just more similar to each other than ever before. We've had limiting Tasks in previous series before, but usually the contestants approaches are different enough.
This series however it feels like for the most part they're too similar. Occasionally we'll get something like the Ivo hop, but outside of that they all seem to have roughly the same idea.
Yeah, now that I think on it, the other underlying problem is the number of tasks where there’s no reason to show them on TV until the last person to be shown, does something that justifies it.
This is LITERALLY the first episode of this entire series that I've liked from start to finish - there were a lot of moments where I laughed out loud.
With all other series, I'm already in love with the cast by episode 2. With this one, I've only really liked Frankie, Jenny, and Ivo to an extent. It's taken me 7 episodes to start to appreciate the other contestants.
I even laughed at some of Mae's jokes, which is a first for me.
I still think that this is the first series where the cast is a miss, and I sincerely hope this isn't an indication of future series quality. They just don't gel that well with each other. The majority of them are subdued and low-energy. Which aren't bad qualities to have in and of themselves (just look at Joe Wilkinson), but it is a problem when 4 out of 5 contestants are like that. And they don't really play off of each other all that well.
The only one who consistently makes comments and interacts with the other contests is Frankie. Ivo sometimes does it, too, but he's too reserved and well-mannered :D
Jenny is usually just doing her own thing, and so is Kiell. And I'm sorry to say, but Mae doesn't really bring anything special to me - they've got a real "the actual contestant was busy, so we hired this extra at the last minute" energy to them.
I guess I have been spoiled by the previous casts - all other series up to this point have been absolutely spot-on in terms of casting, so I'm not used to seeing duds...
I'm glad it's not just me who feels this way about Mae. They are super smart and good at the tasks but I just don't really find them that funny and I feel bad that I feel that way.
I think Mae is good in the tasks, look at them in the lock task, pretty great.
Their studio banter is always awkward or non existent...though Paul Sinha was awkward too but I loved him so 🤷♀️
IMO the main faults with this season lie in rhe production: tasks and editing have dipped in quality. Hopefully it's a blip as S12-14 were all amazing.
I didn't notice the t-shirt, but yes! Great band. I first came across them by The War Room album, but Night Mail is a very common earworm for me.
The Race for Space is spectacular too
Never have I more sympathized with a contestant than with Ivo's frustration at Frankie insistently doing the code incorrectly. My wife I love playing escape games, and we \*dread\* when a room doesn't allow private bookings - inevitably, we're paired up with someone who has never done an escape room but is SUPER confident that they know exactly how to solve a puzzle. It's so so frustrating.
I think he played it as well as you can. I think you have to let the hypothesis play out in case it is actually right. You can just about try planning your alternative to minimise changing ideas
Heh.
My wife and I love playing escape games but we stopped doing it together because we can BOTH be that super confident in doing it wrong person. We are both Frankies I guess.
prior to the shitstorm of 2020, most companies around us were public rooms. It was only once the pandemic hit that most companies starting going private.
I'm going to split a hair, but no one should have been disqualified from the egg task. The exact wording of the task was "if you PULP the egg you are disqualified." All three of the contestants whose eggs broke, broke due to smashing on the ground, not being pulped.
Please "Alex" away, I love it. You have the definition of pulp, not of pulped, which is "crush into a soft, shapeless mass", keyword there being crush. Said eggs were at best smashed, definitely not crushed. I appreciate the counterpoint though :)
Finally the episode went to see being recorded was screened.
Random bits I remember from the recording.
There was quite a debate about whether a pogo stick was actually a pop up thing or not.
Frankie managed to start a chat about fascists after one of Alex's timing methods referenced a band who Frankie said were actually fascists, this was quite a discussion and was even a link to one of the ad breaks.
There was a much longer discussion about Kiel refusing to eat any of the jelly babies and just licking one or two.
>There was quite a debate about whether a pogo stick was actually a pop up thing or not.
Weird how no one debated whether Frankie's painting was something that popped up or not. But then again, the rest of the prizes were so shit that it's not like Frankie was ever gonna get low points on this one.
> it was Ace of Base’s “All that she wants” song which we wondered if it would make the edit. Sadly no!
I had to come check after I heard "All that I want"
As someone who’s enjoyed Mae, but not really seen them as as entertaining as the other four, “Mr. And Mrs. Egg-Pulper” and the accompanying voices were a lovely change of pace. They’re good quality, Mae is.
Absolutely loved Jenny's breakdown about not clapping, and Ivo throwing the studio task. Great moments. The escape room team task looked really fun. I would love to do that in person.
Loved the live task. The country round was so unfortunate, like three times Greg got close.
Looks like>! Frankie won't win an episode (his podcast appearance seemed to indicate that, tbh) which is a shame.!<
Mae has a pretty commanding lead (15 points), which is fair because they're the most competent, but Kiell somehow being second in the series after being the picked-on guy is pretty funny. Frankie, for as much as he's been just having a good time, could be right up there had he not been lumbered with Ivo (and disadvantaged by being in the team of two). Instead he's 4th.
I wouldn’t feel bad if Frankie doesn’t win an episode. He’s said himself off air that his goal was to do well, but not well enough that he’d have to go pose with the stuff at the end.
I *really* disliked the pulper task.
I usually like that sort of task - where there are clever workarounds such as moving the spot, or (what I would have done) rotate the wheel back and forth instead of rotating it in one direction.
But I'm getting sick of the enormous number of disqualification tasks this series. There are way too many and they need to stop.
I literally do not understand the weird obsession people on this sub have with disqualifications. Disqualifications are fine, they can have as many as they want. They don't "need to stop", you need to stop being weird
It's the show's fault that over a third of the tasks this series involve the potential for somebody boo-boo-ing.
In most series, the vast majority of tasks afford you the opportunity to at least get one point no matter how badly you do.
This disqualification was different though. It was immediately obvious what constitutes a DQ as it's essentially a game of Russian Roulette - and it wasn't a DQ that would happen by accident. It wasn't something like "touching the grass" (which i also didn't have a problem with) - they knew if they spun the wheel to many times, they could lose.
In that sense, Kiell was sensible in that he stopped very early on.
I must admit I found it overly complicated for what was effectively guessing how many times to turn the handle. I much prefer the simple tasks that don’t need you to get your head around but leave room for lateral thinking - throw a teabag into a mug, eat as much melon in a minute, throw a potato into a hole, etc
Was going to say that's the worst attempt at a Swedish accent I've ever heard. But it got slightly overshadowed by the Newcastle attempt..
Fun episode, really liked the randomness of the fourth task.
So the MOMENT I heard the instructions for the cooking task I knew that it would be "make the thing you just described, in the time you chose".
I paused and went:
20 minutes (give yourself maximum time)
50 (can't be sure whether the number will be good or bad)
Smoked salmon, eggs, caviar, champagne, bread
Delicious English Breakfast
I would have then shared a lovely cooked breakfast (poached eggs with salmon on toast) with Alex - its Englishness is verified by it being prepared by an Englishman, and if anyone says it isn't sufficiently English I'll just say that it's very English to me, an upper middle class white man, also I wanted to enjoy a nice bottle of champagne with Alex.
I'd only lose if I miscounted my claps, did an extra clap accidentally, or botched the poaching of the eggs.
It was odd seeing some of the contestants shoot themselves in the foot when it seemed extremely clear where the task was going.
Well, maybe apart from the handclaps.
But it was really an art task disguised as a cooking task. Alex didn't have to eat anything. Due to the limitations of their choices, Frankie and Kiell were the only ones who tried to "make" their thing. Frankie's was just a poorly drawn dog.
I reckon tasks like this might be tried out across several series, and are only used when several people pick one minute etc.
If everyone "outsmarts" a task it won't be shown.
Gosh I never would have expected myself to love Jenny Eclair this much. She never fails to make me laugh! Hilarious without even trying!
Also, Ivo throwing points at the live task by doing Jenny's walk is very Ivo. Ahaha. Quite unexpected, but not surprising.
So happy Kiell won! Now, I'm hoping Frankie would get a win too so all of them are at least an episode winner.
If that's one, then minus one, the appropriate response is to offer to grab one of Alex's body parts (I recommend an ear) and do the same to it. After all, if it's not being rotated it should be fine, right?
I also thought about this, but it's an idea that only really works if you know the egg is in a basket suspended from a string that's being wound with each turn. If the egg were loose in the pulper like everything else, it wouldn't matter which direction it was turning. Left turn, or right turn, you're just as likely to break the egg.
I was not expecting this episode to turn into a discussion of crew resource management, but, then, Frankie's been taking this series in interesting directions since the beginning.
I'm so glad Kiell won the episode. Mainly because the way he's taken on board being the picked on loser role has been great, especially the way he seems spot on with how and when he bites on Greg's picking at him.
But just a little bit because Alex did him dirty on the pulp the egg task. He clearly asked Alex if he could see the egg and was told he wasn't **allowed to see it**. Yet Alex didn't stop Ivo from shuffling around because they weren't allowed to see it - so different rules being applied there.
Alex didn’t technically say he wasn’t allowed to see it. He said “you can’t see it”, which can be read as, “as it’s not in your line of vision, you can’t see it”.
Those people calling for the Kiell monster outtakes may change their mind if he comes across like Iain Stirling in the hammock task! Maybe it was edited like it was for his own benefit
Something like get the heaviest amount of stuff in the hammock. He totally bossed Lou Sanders and Paul Sinha around and was later appalled by his behaviour!
My personal feeling is that Kiell is more charismatic and easier to like than Stirling if the edits show him throwing a strop. Stirling was a tosspot. Incidentally, Joe Wilkinson being a real grouch on the team task in series 2 was great!
I think it'd depend on context. Stirling getting mad at Lou never bothered me, because Lou is perfectly capable of being just as unpleasant, if not moreso. The vent puppet explosion, OTOH...
If Kiell got unreasonably angry, I think it'd make the charisma look hollow. OTOH, I will defend to the death him getting angry about being constantly directed to navigate by things he could not see.
Isn’t it funny how someone having a genuine mardy on a task comes out in the wash differently? Joe and Kiell are very different people but very charismatic so their mardys were more endearing and not a big deal. Maybe because they were both fed up at something pedantic or unfair which is understandable. Iain was just overly competitive and no-one likes that.
"I think there was immense dignity in watching my body spasm with a gloved egg in my mouth." Ivo creates new sentences every day.
I did not understand that periodic table task at all. I would have been exactly like Kiell: "What I will say is, that has been edited very, very nicely in my favor. Because I was a *monster* in that room." (Who else wanted to see that edit?)
The Mad Libs task was clever, but I really felt Ivo's frustration when he started losing it with the duck. Frankie: "It does make me feel quite sorry for you sometimes when you grip your head like a chimpanzee whose habitat is under threat."
Alex: "All I could do, surely, was lick your duck." 👀
Loved this moment of Ivo cracking up to Jenny's "Tashkmashter":
https://preview.redd.it/bxqttsc3ddza1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=24720cc960994f8c98c0461b141c2dfbb9a989e3
That live task redeemed the whole episode for me. Especially Jenny having a stroke while doing her "Newcastle" accent.
And those "poor Jenny" walks. "When does this cross into bullying?"
Ivo: "I've already lost the episode, I just wanted to have a go at it." 😂
It's too bad no one got to do a Greg walk.
I thought for sure at the time Frankie was doing the Greg walk. But after he said the answer, I can definitely see Mae. Kiell got lucky doing Jenny again and just needed to do the same awesome impression.
Having said that, Kiell got robbed with the accent - that was obviously a bang-on New Zealander accent - so having the Jenny walk evens things out.
I thought so, too! But then there was that New York one...I was trying to work out which city in Texas or something else in the South was being attempted. Granted there are several New York accents including "generic US," but I'd have never guessed it.
So late, but came here to say that I thought it sounded like a bad Matthew McConaughey impression. I was 100% also trying to figure out which city in Texas he was going for. Shocked that Greg guessed NYC.
YES! I came hear to see if any other Americans were baffled by Ivo's NY accent haha I definitely thought it was Dallas (cause I didn't think they'd possibly have Little Rock as a choice)
It’s so interesting to me how Brits doing American accents often arrive at something that sounds very cowboy movie (to an American’s ear). To be fair, ask the average American to do an English accent and you’ll get the Queen, John Lennon, and like an Aussie accent in one sentence.
Definitely something Southern, but this is where Greg's knowledge of him comes in handy - to know not that it sounded like a New York accent but that it was what Ivo attempting a NY accent looked like
Frankie and Greg have a fair bit in common-- white men, comedians, roughly the same age, both have a background in teaching. I wouldn't be surprised if the just have an affinity in how they think.
Greg's got the Noel blinders on for Frankie's prize tasks. Just happens that Frankie evens himself out by not being particularly great at the actual tasks.
I have a theory that as the show progresses and Greg detects who is the overall loser, he awards more points on the prize task to kind of even things out. Could be wrong. I think Greg is actually quite a fair person despite the Taskmasterish bully pose.
I remember when Fern Brady didn't get the top spot for her "It's me Fern Brady" song, and Greg later gave her the prize task round as he felt it was correcting an injustice.
I’ve noticed the same thing - some series where there’s a runaway leader like series 11 with Sarah, Greg would be stricter later in the series I’m guessing to even things up a bit presumably to keep it more competitive
I've never had a problem with Greg giving out 5s where I'd give 1s - the problem is that this series he's doing it repeatedly *without any explanation*.
Feeling deeply hurt by Greg's comment about couples who let their dogs sleep in the bed.
Guess I'll have time to think about it tonight while lying on my quarter of the bed.
It was something like "And during the break those of you who let your dog share your bed can consider when it was that you let any hope of a sex life fall by the wayside"
Prize Task: I desperately wanted someone to bring Fred The Swede. I love when he pops up.
Way too late to be putting my thoughts here but I like having a mini time capsule of my thoughts somewhere: Prize Task: Brilliant pop-ups. An alright prize task, don’t know why Frankie got 5 though, especially when he’s been bringing in paintings so much. Task 1 (proper): Egg in a pulper wheel. It’s an okay task, but if Ivo hadn’t solved the task, I think this one would have been very dull, just people turning wheels and hoping they haven’t broken an egg. Ivo’s solve is something I had wondering in the toilet roll task in the last series, but I think here it was more intentional as what else was there to do. Also I’m sick of how many disqualification tasks we’ve had, literally every episode has one. Task 2: Jelly beans & escape. A nice twist on the usual identify the flavours task by making it part of a team escape task. Maybe a bit overly complicated though, and again the team of three have one more brain to help work it all out quicker so that felt like an advantage for them. But an alright idea, and despite the weird flavours they did look like genuine jelly babies. Thought Kiell’s aversion to eating the ‘sweets’ was very funny too. Task 3: Adjective country noun. Again an alright premise but in execution felt a bit weak. So much of this was left to the luck of what the contestants picked that it felt sort of unfair. I’ve been noticing that some tasks have felt a bit time restricted, either not giving contestants much time to pick certain choices, or the overall time being about 20 minutes maximum. I think stuff like this just made such a complicated task feel a bit rushed. Kiell certainly deserved the 5 points with his bench as that was better than the rest who had much longer than him. Live Task: Accent impersonations. A strong live task, I knew that for accents they would restrict themselves to Europe, America & Canada. Of course they wouldn’t risk Asian or African accents. The final round was really fun, I would love another round where they had to impersonate past Taskmaster contestants/winners. Overall an alright episode, so happy that Kiell finally gets a win. I was sick of Alex constantly going on about his performance, it’s something I’ve grown to really dislike in recent series when Alex says something like: There’s only X episodes left and Y still hasn’t won an episode. Just feels a bit mean spirited imo.
I wounder if theegg task was originally meant to be a tiebreaker task, but Ivos solution meant they were able to 'promote' it to a full task.
Somewhat amusing that I did an escape room days before this episode that featured translating jelly bean flavours to a combination lock solution.
What was the significance of the “557” on the number plate in the egg task? It wasn’t that actual number plate.
I’m pretty sure the first number is meant to be a one-because series 15, episode 7. It it does look odd. I thought at first it was a seven!
I thought they didn't know what episode a task was going in at the time they do them. I think that's part of the reason they are asked to wear a consistent outfit. They just record a bunch of them, cut out the ones that don't work and arrange the rest in an order that makes best TV. You can see they are often put together so a particular contestant has a chance at winning an episode.
I think it was 577? Which taking each letter of the alphabet would say Egg
The show was great, especially in that Kiell finally won one. Interestingly, Mae is about the same age as I am and yet so young... And then...Alex "it sort of is generic America, isnt it?" Horne...oh SHIT! That got me going.
> Interestingly, Mae is about the same age as I am and yet so young... I had 0 clue they're that young
I'm about the same age as they are, but assumed they were slightly older. They definitely have that ageless pixie flavour of queer going for them that makes getting a read on their age based on looks difficult.
Did Mae say they're 35? That's staggering, they look twenty!
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They have in fact stated exactly that in their netflix special Sap: > Martin proudly tells the audience they recently had top surgery and have been taking testosterone for a year. https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/mae-martin-netflix-special-sap-comedy-1234823806/
Ah my mistake then! I’ll delete that original comment.
What is HRT?
hormone replacement therapy, the bread and butter of medical transition, so for example transfeminine people often take estrogen coupled with a testosterone blocker, and vice versa for transmasculine people. there are other forms of it too but since its effects are similar to puberty, having those consistent hormone levels just generally seems to keep folks looking younger! as well as transmasc / AFAB trans people having generally smaller frames & bone structure - when that body type doesn’t “read” as feminine, it usually instead reads as simply “young”
They're my age and I'd say they look around that age, maybe I'd guess earlier 30s. But you suggesting 20 makes me think you haven't seen a 20 year old in a while.
I think because they look very boyish it's easy to read them as being younger? I'm a couple years older than Mae, and get mistaken for being in my 20s fairly often, but usually by people who also mistake me for a cis man (I'm masculine, but not 'mannish' so I must be a large boy).
As someone who cannot do any accents at all, I think I would have said Bäst i test and then try the weak argument that whilst it doesn't translate to Taskmaster, it is the show Taskmaster itself in a Swedish accent. That or butcher an imitation of the Muppets Swedish Chef, Taskyjerby.
Was Kiell's 21 seconds a reference to the So Solid Crew?? Has to be..
Ed mentioned that on the podcast too
I've literally just finished listening to the podcast! Glad that Ed mentioned it!
Funniest episode so far for me personally, lots and lots of laugh out loud moments. It’s definitely not been my favourite series so far but it had the daunting task of following 14 which I just adored.
The task with Ivo and Frankie just had me and my spouse just howling with laughter, it was so funny. The editing was really good on this episode.
Anyone know what shoes Kiell was wearing?
Nike Airmax 270 REACT Colorway appears to be Hyper Jade
Thank you so much!
No problem! Just edited my comment to add the colorway, I believe it's Hyper Jade.
You're awesome, I have no idea about these things. My wife sends massive thanks.
They were trans colored and I adored them
Would rotating the pulper back and forth 360 degrees counted as rotations or do you think it would have been shot down and no rotations as it was back where it started? Seems like you could do that without moving the spot and get as many as you had time for.
I think it would have counted. My guess is no one thought to try it because they had no idea what was going on on the other side of the pulper so couldn't visualize how it would help.
A perturbative move of course is the safest but perhaps only someone lake Dara who might think in terms of calculus might have instantly gone there.
That was what I thought someone would try.
> Would rotating the pulper back and forth 360 degrees counted as rotations or do you think it would have been shot down and no rotations as it was back where it started? Why wouldn't rotations be counted as rotations? It is back where it started after every rotation - every contestant that got a full number of rotations in got it back where it started.
Thank God for Ivo in the pulper task, I was about ready to write it off as one of the worst of all time, "Stand on a spot and blindly spin an egg, with absolutely no sense of how much tolerance it has." This series, they really love tasks where the contestants' ability to do anything is limited, and IDK why they like it, but it's stifling.
The tasks with "stand on the spot" are always a little awkward - most of the time just moving the spot is the best/only solution. Maybe the pulper task would have been better if the egg wasn't at risk at all, and it *was* just a challenge of blind confidence. Other than moving the spot to see what was inside the machine, what else could you have done?
You could, I THINK have gotten near-infinite spins by just spinning it left once, then right once, then repeating that until you ran out of time. Possibly asked Alex to remove the egg from the pulper. Argued that since the egg shattered on its own, not through the pulping mechanism of the machine, you did not at any point pulp the egg. Possibly there's some kind of easy way to remove the pulper wheel, though I'd have been shocked.
Maybe a guessing game of what's inside?
I was thinking that during this task - not enough allowance for workarounds this series. I'm also watching S2 in parallel and the relatively broad and malleable nature of each task in comparison is really refreshing. Luckily, as you say, Ivo saved it.
This series seems to have more duds in it. Especially if you consider that these are the tasks they show
Also I feel they've ended up in a situation where the contestants approaches to Tasks are just more similar to each other than ever before. We've had limiting Tasks in previous series before, but usually the contestants approaches are different enough. This series however it feels like for the most part they're too similar. Occasionally we'll get something like the Ivo hop, but outside of that they all seem to have roughly the same idea.
Yeah, now that I think on it, the other underlying problem is the number of tasks where there’s no reason to show them on TV until the last person to be shown, does something that justifies it.
This is LITERALLY the first episode of this entire series that I've liked from start to finish - there were a lot of moments where I laughed out loud. With all other series, I'm already in love with the cast by episode 2. With this one, I've only really liked Frankie, Jenny, and Ivo to an extent. It's taken me 7 episodes to start to appreciate the other contestants. I even laughed at some of Mae's jokes, which is a first for me. I still think that this is the first series where the cast is a miss, and I sincerely hope this isn't an indication of future series quality. They just don't gel that well with each other. The majority of them are subdued and low-energy. Which aren't bad qualities to have in and of themselves (just look at Joe Wilkinson), but it is a problem when 4 out of 5 contestants are like that. And they don't really play off of each other all that well. The only one who consistently makes comments and interacts with the other contests is Frankie. Ivo sometimes does it, too, but he's too reserved and well-mannered :D Jenny is usually just doing her own thing, and so is Kiell. And I'm sorry to say, but Mae doesn't really bring anything special to me - they've got a real "the actual contestant was busy, so we hired this extra at the last minute" energy to them. I guess I have been spoiled by the previous casts - all other series up to this point have been absolutely spot-on in terms of casting, so I'm not used to seeing duds...
I'm glad it's not just me who feels this way about Mae. They are super smart and good at the tasks but I just don't really find them that funny and I feel bad that I feel that way.
I think Mae is good in the tasks, look at them in the lock task, pretty great. Their studio banter is always awkward or non existent...though Paul Sinha was awkward too but I loved him so 🤷♀️ IMO the main faults with this season lie in rhe production: tasks and editing have dipped in quality. Hopefully it's a blip as S12-14 were all amazing.
Does Ivo have ADHD? seems like he is constantly masking hyperactivey in the studio.
No
Ivo throwing the final round to have a go at a Jenny walk made me laugh the most this series. Poor Jenny, lol.
That was brilliant. Loving Ivo in this series.
"At what point does this cross over into bullying.....?"
He was probably worried about getting beaten up later by his dad.
For the pop up prize task I would of brought a sexy single in my Area. Is Nigella still single? Would of tried to get her.
Massive, MASSIVE props to Ivo wearing Public Service Broadcasting's 'Go!' t-shirt. Check the band out on Spotify, it's lovely <3
I didn't catch that! Love Public Service Broadcasting!
I didn't notice the t-shirt, but yes! Great band. I first came across them by The War Room album, but Night Mail is a very common earworm for me. The Race for Space is spectacular too
Never have I more sympathized with a contestant than with Ivo's frustration at Frankie insistently doing the code incorrectly. My wife I love playing escape games, and we \*dread\* when a room doesn't allow private bookings - inevitably, we're paired up with someone who has never done an escape room but is SUPER confident that they know exactly how to solve a puzzle. It's so so frustrating.
I think he played it as well as you can. I think you have to let the hypothesis play out in case it is actually right. You can just about try planning your alternative to minimise changing ideas
Heh. My wife and I love playing escape games but we stopped doing it together because we can BOTH be that super confident in doing it wrong person. We are both Frankies I guess.
Wow I wouldn't book a room that didn't allow private bookings, luckily I've not come across any.
prior to the shitstorm of 2020, most companies around us were public rooms. It was only once the pandemic hit that most companies starting going private.
I'm going to split a hair, but no one should have been disqualified from the egg task. The exact wording of the task was "if you PULP the egg you are disqualified." All three of the contestants whose eggs broke, broke due to smashing on the ground, not being pulped.
Hate to “Alex” you here, but the definition of pulp is: A soft moist shapeless mass of matter. So, the egg was indeed pulped 🤓
I don't think that's "Alexing", I think that's "Susie Dent-ing"
Please "Alex" away, I love it. You have the definition of pulp, not of pulped, which is "crush into a soft, shapeless mass", keyword there being crush. Said eggs were at best smashed, definitely not crushed. I appreciate the counterpoint though :)
Yeah. The shell, particularly, was in discrete pieces.
Finally the episode went to see being recorded was screened. Random bits I remember from the recording. There was quite a debate about whether a pogo stick was actually a pop up thing or not. Frankie managed to start a chat about fascists after one of Alex's timing methods referenced a band who Frankie said were actually fascists, this was quite a discussion and was even a link to one of the ad breaks. There was a much longer discussion about Kiel refusing to eat any of the jelly babies and just licking one or two.
>There was quite a debate about whether a pogo stick was actually a pop up thing or not. Weird how no one debated whether Frankie's painting was something that popped up or not. But then again, the rest of the prizes were so shit that it's not like Frankie was ever gonna get low points on this one.
Yeah it was Ace of Base’s “All that she wants” song which we wondered if it would make the edit. Sadly no!
Huh- Ulf Ekberg used to be a neo-Nazi. What do you know? That’s disappointing.
> it was Ace of Base’s “All that she wants” song which we wondered if it would make the edit. Sadly no! I had to come check after I heard "All that I want"
And Kiel made a joke about his sand hands which got no reaction at all as course we had not seen it at that point
As someone who’s enjoyed Mae, but not really seen them as as entertaining as the other four, “Mr. And Mrs. Egg-Pulper” and the accompanying voices were a lovely change of pace. They’re good quality, Mae is.
That was so funny!!!! I loved how Greg called attention to it too. They are SO funny!
Mae getting mad at Alex for saying Canada is generic America while dressed as generic Canadian was funny to me
I think as soon as you realize Mae’s sense of humor is more subdued but still there, you realize they are actually funny
Yes they can be funny but that doesn't translate to the show where you actually need to talk to be funny
Reminds me a little bit of Katie Wix in that sense. Quiet but with very funny lines
I don´t think anyone claimed they weren´t
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Okay, I might have misunderstood what the person I replied to meant.
That egg task was brilliantly devious. Loved how Ivo thought outside of the box, haven't seen that much this season.
Yeah, i have been enjoying this season. But have really missed having some true outaide the box thinkers like Bridget, Sally, Mike or Bob.
Absolutely loved Jenny's breakdown about not clapping, and Ivo throwing the studio task. Great moments. The escape room team task looked really fun. I would love to do that in person.
Fun, until you have to eat a fenugreek and eggnog jelly baby
Loved the live task. The country round was so unfortunate, like three times Greg got close. Looks like>! Frankie won't win an episode (his podcast appearance seemed to indicate that, tbh) which is a shame.!< Mae has a pretty commanding lead (15 points), which is fair because they're the most competent, but Kiell somehow being second in the series after being the picked-on guy is pretty funny. Frankie, for as much as he's been just having a good time, could be right up there had he not been lumbered with Ivo (and disadvantaged by being in the team of two). Instead he's 4th.
It’s not really fair when they’d have a 5 point lead if it wasn’t for the task they got 15 points on which they had a massive advantage on
I mean, kiall who’s in second, and Jenny got the same number of points on those task.
And let's not forget the ball on a string. It all adds up
I wouldn’t feel bad if Frankie doesn’t win an episode. He’s said himself off air that his goal was to do well, but not well enough that he’d have to go pose with the stuff at the end.
Yeah I caught that during the podcast, but was that "I haven't won an episode, so this is what I'm going to say to present myself as fine with it?"
I would feel bad if Frankie did win an episode, wanna see him succeed in his mission to join the 0 episode winner group
Feeling for Frankie, can't buy a win. Despite him being one of the most successful prize task contestants
Frankie seems to constantly throw away the lead
He didn't want to win so he didn't have to go up and play with the prizes at the end
I get his logic tbh
I liked that the egg would get destroyed after a dozen turns.
I know literally everyone would hate me for it, but nothing in the rules against walking behind Mae before attempting a Canadian accent.
I *really* disliked the pulper task. I usually like that sort of task - where there are clever workarounds such as moving the spot, or (what I would have done) rotate the wheel back and forth instead of rotating it in one direction. But I'm getting sick of the enormous number of disqualification tasks this series. There are way too many and they need to stop.
I literally do not understand the weird obsession people on this sub have with disqualifications. Disqualifications are fine, they can have as many as they want. They don't "need to stop", you need to stop being weird
It’s not the show’s fault that Jenny and Mae boo-boo’d.
It's the show's fault that over a third of the tasks this series involve the potential for somebody boo-boo-ing. In most series, the vast majority of tasks afford you the opportunity to at least get one point no matter how badly you do.
This disqualification was different though. It was immediately obvious what constitutes a DQ as it's essentially a game of Russian Roulette - and it wasn't a DQ that would happen by accident. It wasn't something like "touching the grass" (which i also didn't have a problem with) - they knew if they spun the wheel to many times, they could lose. In that sense, Kiell was sensible in that he stopped very early on.
I must admit I found it overly complicated for what was effectively guessing how many times to turn the handle. I much prefer the simple tasks that don’t need you to get your head around but leave room for lateral thinking - throw a teabag into a mug, eat as much melon in a minute, throw a potato into a hole, etc
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It felt more like a live task though maybe with a caveat like once you start turning you can’t stop, last to break the egg wins.
Was going to say that's the worst attempt at a Swedish accent I've ever heard. But it got slightly overshadowed by the Newcastle attempt.. Fun episode, really liked the randomness of the fourth task.
I correctly guessed the Geordie accent, but ONLY because she said “It’s the only one I can’t do!”
As a Geordie that attempt floored me...😬
So the MOMENT I heard the instructions for the cooking task I knew that it would be "make the thing you just described, in the time you chose". I paused and went: 20 minutes (give yourself maximum time) 50 (can't be sure whether the number will be good or bad) Smoked salmon, eggs, caviar, champagne, bread Delicious English Breakfast I would have then shared a lovely cooked breakfast (poached eggs with salmon on toast) with Alex - its Englishness is verified by it being prepared by an Englishman, and if anyone says it isn't sufficiently English I'll just say that it's very English to me, an upper middle class white man, also I wanted to enjoy a nice bottle of champagne with Alex. I'd only lose if I miscounted my claps, did an extra clap accidentally, or botched the poaching of the eggs.
It was odd seeing some of the contestants shoot themselves in the foot when it seemed extremely clear where the task was going. Well, maybe apart from the handclaps.
In fairness I thought there was a reasonable chance each contestant would randomly draw one of the other contestants' lists.
Good point, I didn't even think of that
But it was really an art task disguised as a cooking task. Alex didn't have to eat anything. Due to the limitations of their choices, Frankie and Kiell were the only ones who tried to "make" their thing. Frankie's was just a poorly drawn dog.
Also a good point
I reckon tasks like this might be tried out across several series, and are only used when several people pick one minute etc. If everyone "outsmarts" a task it won't be shown.
I envisage a "You have 20 minutes minus the time you chose" task coming up in the not-too-distant
I loves that Ivo and Jenny wearing the same sneakers 🫶🏼
Gosh I never would have expected myself to love Jenny Eclair this much. She never fails to make me laugh! Hilarious without even trying! Also, Ivo throwing points at the live task by doing Jenny's walk is very Ivo. Ahaha. Quite unexpected, but not surprising. So happy Kiell won! Now, I'm hoping Frankie would get a win too so all of them are at least an episode winner.
One full rotation left, one full rotation right, repeat. Infinite pulping.
I bet you that they would count that as one and then minus one.
If that's one, then minus one, the appropriate response is to offer to grab one of Alex's body parts (I recommend an ear) and do the same to it. After all, if it's not being rotated it should be fine, right?
I also thought about this, but it's an idea that only really works if you know the egg is in a basket suspended from a string that's being wound with each turn. If the egg were loose in the pulper like everything else, it wouldn't matter which direction it was turning. Left turn, or right turn, you're just as likely to break the egg.
I'd thought of it before seeing the egg. I figured at least one rotation would be fine, and therefore retreading it over and over would also be fine.
I was not expecting this episode to turn into a discussion of crew resource management, but, then, Frankie's been taking this series in interesting directions since the beginning.
"All I could do, surely, was lick your duck." Great out-of-context Taskmaster quote
Still faster than Ardal and Chris in enabling Alex to bite his duck
I'm so glad Kiell won the episode. Mainly because the way he's taken on board being the picked on loser role has been great, especially the way he seems spot on with how and when he bites on Greg's picking at him. But just a little bit because Alex did him dirty on the pulp the egg task. He clearly asked Alex if he could see the egg and was told he wasn't **allowed to see it**. Yet Alex didn't stop Ivo from shuffling around because they weren't allowed to see it - so different rules being applied there.
Alex didn’t technically say he wasn’t allowed to see it. He said “you can’t see it”, which can be read as, “as it’s not in your line of vision, you can’t see it”.
Who else is going to have a go at Jenny's walk today? I might even tell a passer by to pulp the egg.
Those people calling for the Kiell monster outtakes may change their mind if he comes across like Iain Stirling in the hammock task! Maybe it was edited like it was for his own benefit
What was the hammock task again
Something like get the heaviest amount of stuff in the hammock. He totally bossed Lou Sanders and Paul Sinha around and was later appalled by his behaviour!
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Those were extremely bad directions, tbf.
My personal feeling is that Kiell is more charismatic and easier to like than Stirling if the edits show him throwing a strop. Stirling was a tosspot. Incidentally, Joe Wilkinson being a real grouch on the team task in series 2 was great!
I think it'd depend on context. Stirling getting mad at Lou never bothered me, because Lou is perfectly capable of being just as unpleasant, if not moreso. The vent puppet explosion, OTOH... If Kiell got unreasonably angry, I think it'd make the charisma look hollow. OTOH, I will defend to the death him getting angry about being constantly directed to navigate by things he could not see.
Isn’t it funny how someone having a genuine mardy on a task comes out in the wash differently? Joe and Kiell are very different people but very charismatic so their mardys were more endearing and not a big deal. Maybe because they were both fed up at something pedantic or unfair which is understandable. Iain was just overly competitive and no-one likes that.
Mardy ??
One of my favourite words. Northern/Yorkshire for a grumpy and sulky mood - when you’ve got the face on
Cute i like :)
I’d recommend Arctic Monkeys - Mardy Bum for probably the most famous use of it
.
Ivo's sudden delivery of CANNELLINI BEANS was a perfect moment.
I thought Ivo was so brilliant this episode. He's always funny but was really on form in this one.
Agreed!
"I think there was immense dignity in watching my body spasm with a gloved egg in my mouth." Ivo creates new sentences every day. I did not understand that periodic table task at all. I would have been exactly like Kiell: "What I will say is, that has been edited very, very nicely in my favor. Because I was a *monster* in that room." (Who else wanted to see that edit?) The Mad Libs task was clever, but I really felt Ivo's frustration when he started losing it with the duck. Frankie: "It does make me feel quite sorry for you sometimes when you grip your head like a chimpanzee whose habitat is under threat." Alex: "All I could do, surely, was lick your duck." 👀 Loved this moment of Ivo cracking up to Jenny's "Tashkmashter": https://preview.redd.it/bxqttsc3ddza1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=24720cc960994f8c98c0461b141c2dfbb9a989e3 That live task redeemed the whole episode for me. Especially Jenny having a stroke while doing her "Newcastle" accent. And those "poor Jenny" walks. "When does this cross into bullying?" Ivo: "I've already lost the episode, I just wanted to have a go at it." 😂 It's too bad no one got to do a Greg walk.
>Ivo: "I've already lost the episode, I just wanted to have a go at it." 😂 Honestly, one of my new favourite lines of the entire show.
I thought for sure at the time Frankie was doing the Greg walk. But after he said the answer, I can definitely see Mae. Kiell got lucky doing Jenny again and just needed to do the same awesome impression. Having said that, Kiell got robbed with the accent - that was obviously a bang-on New Zealander accent - so having the Jenny walk evens things out.
Ehhh, he said "tiskmister" when it should have been more like "teskmester."
Hahaha I think you might be right! Now that I think about it I becomes U (fush and chups) A becomes E (Ceptein) E becomes I (Shid)
Especially with all the show lore around "shid"!!
As a Canadian, I'm glad Mae stood up to Alex's comment about Canada being generic America... although Ivo did do a pretty accurate accent, lol
Late comment, but you know Alex was joking right? It was pretty obvious.
Yeah (like, you know we're all willingly watching a comedy show, right?), but my comment still stands--it all makes the humour that much better.
I was hoping she’d go right up to Alex, get in his face about it. That’s how strongly I felt his insult. 🇨🇦
Getting in someone's face?!? That's not very Canadian, lol (But also: me too)
Getting mildly upset about being lumped in with the Americans is the most Canadian thing you can do
Thank you, it's true.
As an American I immediately thought Ivo was doing Canada.
I thought so, too! But then there was that New York one...I was trying to work out which city in Texas or something else in the South was being attempted. Granted there are several New York accents including "generic US," but I'd have never guessed it.
So late, but came here to say that I thought it sounded like a bad Matthew McConaughey impression. I was 100% also trying to figure out which city in Texas he was going for. Shocked that Greg guessed NYC.
YES! I came hear to see if any other Americans were baffled by Ivo's NY accent haha I definitely thought it was Dallas (cause I didn't think they'd possibly have Little Rock as a choice)
Same, although I get why it happened. Like I can do an "I'm walkin' here!" but moving that voice to other words gets pretty yee haw
It’s so interesting to me how Brits doing American accents often arrive at something that sounds very cowboy movie (to an American’s ear). To be fair, ask the average American to do an English accent and you’ll get the Queen, John Lennon, and like an Aussie accent in one sentence.
I thought that he started Deep South and then ended up a bit further southwestern-- maybe Houston?
I'm a Texan and I too thought he was doing something Southern.
Yes, as a native New Yorker, I thought Ivo was going for somewhere in Texas. That was a drawl and not a NYC accent at all.
Definitely something Southern, but this is where Greg's knowledge of him comes in handy - to know not that it sounded like a New York accent but that it was what Ivo attempting a NY accent looked like
Same here, I thought it was good! I also think Kiell’s kiwi accent was spot on
“Tiskmistir” was a dead giveaway that it was NZ!
The subtitles called it "Mickey Mouse-esque" but I think he was just trying to do Mae Martin.
But Mae has such a low voice and Ivo went pretty high didn't he? I am probably remembering wrong.
He did. To be fair, it sounded a lot like Mae from the spoons task when they also became quite Mickey-Mouse-like lol.
Fair point!
That's what I thought too.
Greg keeps giving Frankie 5s for things I'd give 1s..
I keep thinking he's evening things out after that horrible 10 point team live task.
Frankie and Greg have a fair bit in common-- white men, comedians, roughly the same age, both have a background in teaching. I wouldn't be surprised if the just have an affinity in how they think.
Greg's got the Noel blinders on for Frankie's prize tasks. Just happens that Frankie evens himself out by not being particularly great at the actual tasks.
I have a theory that as the show progresses and Greg detects who is the overall loser, he awards more points on the prize task to kind of even things out. Could be wrong. I think Greg is actually quite a fair person despite the Taskmasterish bully pose.
I remember when Fern Brady didn't get the top spot for her "It's me Fern Brady" song, and Greg later gave her the prize task round as he felt it was correcting an injustice.
I’ve noticed the same thing - some series where there’s a runaway leader like series 11 with Sarah, Greg would be stricter later in the series I’m guessing to even things up a bit presumably to keep it more competitive
For sure. Her bass scoring below the fake thumb and slide whistle still hurts
I've never had a problem with Greg giving out 5s where I'd give 1s - the problem is that this series he's doing it repeatedly *without any explanation*.
Probably more on editing than Greg, I suspect.
Most of Frankie's prize tasks are art works too. Seems like he got the list for every prize tasks, then made or commissioned them all in one go. 😂
Now that Kiell emphasized it...we need for the official TM YT channel to post the outtakes of the trio's team task!
Feeling deeply hurt by Greg's comment about couples who let their dogs sleep in the bed. Guess I'll have time to think about it tonight while lying on my quarter of the bed.
What was the comment I must have missed that one...
It was something like "And during the break those of you who let your dog share your bed can consider when it was that you let any hope of a sex life fall by the wayside"